Monday, May 23, 2016

New Effort To Liberate Iraq’s Fallujah Underway

On May 23, 2016 Prime Minister Haidar Abadi announced
a new operation to try to free Fallujah had begun. That would include
a collection of 20,000 fighters from the Golden Division, the army, the Rapid
Reaction Brigade, Sunni tribal fighters, and various Hashd elements. A
government spokesman said that the U.S. was supporting the campaign as long as
the Hashd stayed on the perimeter.

The Hashd have been talking about freeing Fallujah for a
year now. The Hashd originally tried to liberate the city in July
2015, which contravened PM Abadi’s effort against Ramadi that started at the
same time. This came after pro-Iranian Hashd groups accused the premier and the
Americans of keeping them out of the province resulting in the fall of Ramadi.
In fact, Hashd units had been in Anbar fighting for months. The Hashd claimed it
could liberate Fallujah and all of Anbar, but the campaign eventually ground
down. In 2016 the Hashd started a new operation almost every month against the
city, but half of them went to other towns like Thar Thar and Amiriya Fallujah
instead, and little success was reported. As the Islamic State started its
annual spring offensive marked by some high casualty bombings in Baghdad and
southern Iraq, the rhetoric about taking Fallujah increased, along with more
talk about Abadi and the Americans were blocking them. These
statements were all to score political points, because while the Hashd were
grabbing the headlines the Iraqi forces (ISF) were actually taking the lead.

Fallujah is the natural next step to the ISF’s moves in
Anbar. In February 2016 it freed Ramadi. It then cleared out the surrounding
towns and began marching west along the Euphrates clearing Hit in April and
broke the siege of Haditha in May, before moving south to take Rutba and then
the Trebil border crossing with Jordan. With most of western Anbar cleared the
ISF swung back east to take care of Fallujah. General Abdul Wahab al-Saadi is
in command of the operation. He was formerly the head of the Salahaddin
Operations Command, and took part in the battles for Baiji and Tikrit.

With the combined forces and U.S. air support it is only a
matter of time before Fallujah is taken, the real question will be the
aftermath. While the fears of Hashd retaliation will come up, if the ISF are in
the lead that hopefully will not become a major issue. More importantly is the
state of the city afterward. It has been shelled and bombed relentlessly since
it fell in January 2014. The Islamic State has laced the area with improvised
explosive devices and booby traps. All together it may turn out like Ramadi,
which the United Nations called the most damaged city so far in the war.
Baghdad has no money to rebuild that city, meaning it will have none for
Fallujah either leaving both destroyed and uninhabitable for months.

IRAQ HISTORY TIMELINE

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About Me

Musings On Iraq was started in 2008 to explain the political, economic, security and cultural situation in Iraq via original articles and interviews. If you wish to contact me personally my email is: motown67@aol.com